


You've Been Watching Me

by katling



Series: Zer0 Sum Game [1]
Category: Borderlands
Genre: Contemplation, Drinking, M/M, alien!zer0 - Freeform, chill!axton
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-06
Updated: 2015-12-06
Packaged: 2018-05-05 05:29:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,485
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5363096
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/katling/pseuds/katling
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Zer0 knows the others have been playing 'what is Zer0' and he knows Axton has been watching him enough to get it right. What he doesn't expect is for Axton to make a move and such a confident one at that.</p>
            </blockquote>





	You've Been Watching Me

**Author's Note:**

> Note: This features my headcanon of alien!Zer0 and chill!Axton. And I so didn't need another ship but apparently I am here. :D

Zer0 knows his fellow vault hunters all have theories about him. He’s heard them discussing it when they think he’s asleep. The helmet is good for that sort of thing. He could be awake, asleep or making funny faces, no one would know. But overhearing conversations is also a good use.

Maya thinks he’s an android. There’s always one when he’s among a group of people for any length of time. There’s always one who thinks he’s an android despite the fact he bleeds and uses med kits like anyone else. He’s not sure how she rationalises that though. The conversation didn’t get that far.

Salvador thinks he’s a human who has been in some kind of horrible accident that’s left him minus fingers and hideously disfigured. It’s creative and certainly explains both the helmet and his hands so it’s one up on Maya’s theory so far. He likes it and if he actually knew how to behave completely like a human, he might run with it. He might do it anyway, just for the shits and giggles, which is usually his reason for doing many things.

Gaige thinks he’s a cyborg, which he could have easily predicted since the girl is pretty much a cyborg herself. He’s going to hate disappointing her if he ever reveals himself to her or to all of them. He likes Gaige and she’s very enthusiastic about her reasoning behind why he’s a cyborg, even detailing why having only three fingers was advantageous. 

Krieg doesn’t seem to have an opinion at all but that’s no surprise. Or perhaps it’s more a case of Krieg may or may not have an opinion but he’s not capable of voicing it. Zer0 has always suspected there’s more going on behind that mask than seems obvious. There’s something too… sane about the psycho’s actions. But whatever is going on behind the mask clearly can’t get past the psycho personality when it comes to verbal communication so Krieg’s opinion about him goes unknown.

Axton is of the opinion that he’s an alien and that he wears the helmet because he needs to. He’d assume that the commando was just taking one of the only remaining options except Axton _watches_ him. He’s not obvious about – perhaps the only thing he _isn’t_ obvious about – but Zer0 knows when there are eyes on him. Snipers are vulnerable when they’re lining up a shot so knowing your surroundings is often the difference between life and death. Thus he knows Axton has been watching him closely enough to work out that his movements have nothing mechanical about them nor does he move like someone who had been injured.

He likes that Axton has been watching him. He doesn’t really have much of a grasp of human standards of beauty and Axton certainly wouldn’t really be considered attractive by the standards of Zer0’s people but there’s something aesthetically pleasing about the man anyway, at least in Zer0’s eyes. It’s the way he moves really. Axton is a trained soldier and he has a certain grace about his movements that speaks of a remarkable amount of confidence in his body. He likes that and he wonders what Axton’s body would feel like if he touched it. Solid, he thinks. Smooth maybe as well. Mostly anyway. He’s seen the body hair Axton has when he saw the man change his shirt. He wonders what it would be like to touch that as well. He doesn’t have any body hair and Axton’s hair intrigues him.

He think that maybe he’ll get a chance. He can’t always read human facial expressions and body language well but Axton watches him too intently for the look to be casual and not intensely enough for it to be threatening. He’s curious. That much he can tell. He thinks that curiosity has a sexual edge to it but again he’s not confident in his ability to read Axton’s body language to be sure.

So he waits. He lets his gaze rest on Axton more than normal. He flashes little smile emoticons at the man to see how he reacts. He thinks he’s reading things right and he thinks he’ll find out soon. 

He wonders how Axton will react to what’s under his suit and his helmet. His body isn’t _that_ different in the basics though there are aspects to it that will either intrigue Axton or freak him out but his face is another matter. Axton is right that he wears the helmet because he needs to. The oxygen saturation on his home planet is much lower than most human worlds. His helmet filters the excess oxygen out. He can survive for a time without it but oxygen toxicity is nasty and he’d rather not experience it. Aside from that, his face is not… human. Humanoid certainly. Two eyes, a mouth, a nose, ears but none of it is human and from past experience, it’s just not-human enough to unnerve humans.

The knock on the door of his room in Sanctuary starts him out of his thoughts and he rises to open it. Axton is standing outside and Zer0 knows that he is going to get at least some of his answers now.

“Hey, Zee!” Axton grins at him and Zer0 lets him into the room, closing the door behind him. When he turns, the commando is holding up a bottle of some sort of alcohol. “I liberated this from Mordecai’s stash. Wanna try some?”

Zer0 stills. Axton must know what he’s asking, that there’s no way for him to drink without raising his helmet so he’s asking for a lot more than just whether Zer0 wants a drink. He’s asking for trust and for something more. Zer0 is glad that he asked Gaige last week to rig the air filters in his room so that he can lower the oxygen content. The girl did it without asking questions, though he could tell she was dying to know. 

He walks over to the wall and fiddles with the controls Gaige installed, lowering the oxygen levels to something a little safer for himself that won’t unduly affect Axton. He doesn’t want the man suffering from oxygen deprivation after all. Once that is done, he raises his hands to the catches on his helmet. He can hear Axton’s indrawn breath over the sound of the catches being undone then he lifts off the faceplate. He sets it down then removes the last sections of the helmet and they join the faceplate. Only then does he turn around and face Axton.

He sees the man’s eyes widen then he grins. “Score! Maya owes me twenty and Salvador owes me a hundred. I told them you were an alien, Zee. They didn’t believe me.”

All the tension flows out of Zer0’s frame and he quirks as half-smile. “You’ve been watching me/Your advantage is unfair/Candy from babies.”

Axton laughs and twists off the lid from the bottle. He takes a swig then coughs and offers it to Zer0. “Damn straight on all counts.”

Zero takes the bottle and eyes it suspiciously for a moment. He likes Mordecai and respects his skill as a sniper but the man’s taste in alcohol is dubious at best. He shrugs and takes a drink. The alcohol burns its way down his throat and settles pleasantly in his stomach. 

“Nice.”

“Figures.” Axton shakes his head and drops down onto the bed and slouches there. He waves a hand. “Come here and give that to me.” His eyes narrow as he takes a deep breath. “Then tell me how long you can go without the helmet on.”

Zer0’s jaw drops and he realises he needs to seriously reassess his opinion of Axton’s intelligence. Not that he’d ever thought the commando was stupid but to put the tiny clues together in the way he has is remarkable. 

“Well, at this level/I have at least eight hours/It’s plenty of time.”

“Good,” Axton says, slouching down a little more. “Then get over here.”

Zer0 gets. He drops down onto the bed a little tentatively and holds out the bottle. This close Axton absolutely can’t miss any aspect of his alienness but the man doesn’t react except to grab the bottle and take another long swig.

“So… based on the structure of your mouth, I’m guessing that kissing isn’t really a thing for your people,” Axton says, grinning at him. “You’ll have to show me what you do for… you know, casual affection and whatnot.”

Once again Zer0 is caught off-guard but this time he simply laughs. He should have known that the commando would approach this with the same open and reckless manner he does everything else. He takes the bottle from the man and takes another drink before setting it aside.

“Kissing? Not really/But I think I’d like to try/Then show you my ways.”

“Awesome.”


End file.
